NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Okot p'Bitek

Okot p'Bitek (1931 – July 20, 1982) was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised. Song of Lawino was originally written in Acholi language, and self-translated to English, and published in 1966. It was a breakthrough work, creating an audience amongst anglophone Africans for direct, topical poetry in English; and incorporating traditional attitudes and thinking in an accessible yet faithful literary vehicle. It was followed by the pendant Song of Ocol (1970), the husband's reply. Image File history File links Okot_bitek. ... Image File history File links Okot_bitek. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Song of Lawino author Okot pBitek Song of Lawino is an epic poem written by Ugandan poet Okot pBitek. ... Westernization (or westernisation) is a process whereby traditional, long-established societies come under the influence of Western culture in such matters as industry and technology, law, politics and economics, lifestyle and diet, language and the alphabet, religion and values. ... Acholi (also Acoli, Shuli, Gang, Lwo) is a language primarily spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, a region known as Acholiland in northern Uganda. ... Look up Anglophone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The East African Song School or Okot School poetry is now an academic identification of the work following his direction, also popularly called 'comic singing': a forceful type of dramatic verse monologue rooted in traditional song and phraseology. Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general terms is poetic drama. ... A monologue is a speech made by one person speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing a reader, audience or character. ...

Life

He was born in Gulu, in the North Uganda grasslands. His father was a schoolteacher, his mother Lacwaa Cerina was a traditional singer. His background was Acholi, and he wrote first in Luo, one of the Western Nilotic languages. Location of Gulu within Uganda. ... Acholiland, Uganda Children in an IDP camp in Kitgum The Acholi are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Nile valley dwelling on the east bank of the White Nile, about a hundred miles north of Lake Albert. ... Luo (also known als Dholuo) is a Western Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people, numbering about 3 million. ... The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. ...

He was educated at Gulu High School, then King's College in Budo, and later at universities in the United Kingdom. At school he was noted as a singer, dancer, drummer and athlete; he composed and directed an opera while at college. Budo (æ¦é“) is a term for Japanese martial arts. ...

He travelled abroad first as a player with the Ugandan national football team, in 1958. At this point he gave up on football as a possible career, staying on in Britain; he studied education at Bristol University, and then law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He then took a B. Litt. degree in social anthropology at the University of Oxford, with a 1963 dissertation on Acholi and Lango traditional cultures. The University of Bristol was founded in 1876 as the University College, Bristol. ... Affiliations University of Wales, AMBA, ACU, Universities UK, HiPACT Website www. ... Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, is one of four commonly recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The Lango (plural Langi) people live in the central area of Uganda, north of Lake Kyoga. ...

According to George Heron he lost his commitment to Christian belief during these years. This had major consequences for his attitude as a scholar of African tradition, which was by no means accepting of the general run of earlier work, or what he called 'dirty gossip' in relation to tribal life. His character Lawino also speaks for him, in some places, on these matters. A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as the Christ. ...

He wrote an early novel, Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wi Lobo (1953) in Luo, later translated into English as White Teeth. It concerns the experiences of a young Acholi man moving away from home, to find work and so a wife. He organised an arts festival at Gulu, and then at Kisumu. Subsequently he taught at Makerere University and then was Director of Uganda's National Theatre. Kisumu is a port city in western Kenya, with a population of 322,724 (1999 census). ... Makerere University is Ugandas largest university. ...

He became unpopular with the Ugandan government, and took teaching posts outside the country. He took part in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1969. He was at the Institute of African Studies of University College in Nairobi from 1971 as a senior research fellow and lecturer, with visiting positions at University of Texas at Austin and University of Ife in Nigeria in 1978/9. He remained in exile during the regime of Idi Amin, returning in 1982 to Makerere University, to teach creative writing. The University of Iowa is a major national research university located on a 1,900-acre campus in Iowa City, Iowa, USA, on the Iowa River in East Central Iowa. ... Nairobi (pronounced )is the capital of Kenya. ... The University of Texas at Austin, often called UT or Texas, is the flagship[3][4][5][6][7] institution of the University of Texas System. ... Obafemi Awolowo University is an institution of higher learning located in Ife, Nigeria. ... Idi Amin Dada (1 January 1925?â€“16 August 2003) was an army officer and President of Uganda (1971â€“1979). ...

Apart from his poetry and novels, he also took part in an ongoing debate about the integrity of scholarship on traditional African religion, with the assertion in African Religions in Western Scholarship (1971) that scholars centred on European concerns were "intellectual smugglers". His point, aimed partly at Africans who had had a training in Christian traditions, was that it led to a concentration on matters distant from the actual concerns of Africans; this has been contested by others.

He died of a liver infection. His daughter Jane Okot p'Bitek wrote a Song of Farewell (1994). The liver is an organ in living beings, including humans. ...

Critical reception

The Song of Lawino has been described as one of the most important works of African literature of the 1960s. The Luo original was written in rhymed couplets, and was metrically regular. The English translation, published a decade later in 1966, is in a staccato form of free verse, running to 13 sections and a total of around 5000 lines. It develops from many angles Lawino, the almost-discarded wife of an upwardly-mobile husband, as a persona or type, but also as an individual of great verbal resource who probably reflects the author's mother. Kwame Anthony Appiah remarks in In My Father's House that the specific cultural points made are carried off without the need for much exposition. Given that the form mixes harangue with self-reflection, it is always clear where the argument tends and the context is brought along with the main thrust, whether the issue is cooking, Lawino's relatives being told they cannot drop in unannounced, or the pretensions and fashions of the urban second wife. Free verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be... Kwame Anthony Appiah (1954-) is a philosopher whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. ...

Scholars have identified numerous allusions in and sources of Song of Lawino, in Acholi traditional songs. These can be found at the level of particular phrases. They also come from across the range of genres, making the Song of Lawino a cross-section of an entire culture.

The shorter sequel Song of Ocol was less well-received. The self-justification of the ambitious husband had no doubt a satirical and political aim. It has also dated much more quickly, while the many-faceted Lawino, who starts with the comment 'My husband's tongue is bitter', is more likely to become a timeless creation.

In Two Songs, he addressed other issues, in the same style. Song of a Prisoner drew on his reactions to Kenyan politics, and Song of Malaya deals with the life of a prostitute.

Works

Song of Lawino author Okot pBitek Song of Lawino is an epic poem written by Ugandan poet Okot pBitek. ... Taban lo Liyong (born 1939) is one of Africas well-known poets and writers of fiction and literary criticism. ...

References

External links

Categories: 1931 births | 1982 deaths | Ugandan poets Acholi (also Acoli, Shuli, Gang, Lwo) is a language primarily spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, a region known as Acholiland in northern Uganda. ... The Lango (plural Langi) people live in the central area of Uganda, north of Lake Kyoga. ... The Luo languages comprise about 15 languages spoken in an area ranging from Southern Sudan via Uganda to Southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into Northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...

Contents

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Critical reception

Works

References

External links

Life